At ICC, LRA commander Dominic Ongwen pleads not guilty to war crimes

Dominic Ongwen, the first former child soldier to appear at the International Criminal Court. Dominic, the commander of ‘Lords Resistance Army’ (LRA) is accused of leading attacks on four camps for ‘internally displaced people’ (IDPs) in northern Uganda, murdering and torturing civilians, and forcing women into marriage and children to take part in the fighting. Dominic Ongwen said the LRA was responsible and he had also suffered from the barbarity. Ongwen, who is now in his early 40s, was a young boy when he was abducted by this rebel cult. He is charged with 70 counts of war crimes and crimes against humanity in Uganda. Ongwen argued that the charges should be brought against the LRA and its leader Joseph Kony who was originally responsible for all this. “It is the LRA who abducted people in northern Uganda, killed people in northern Uganda and committed atrocities in northern Uganda. I’m one of the people against whom the LRA committed atrocities. It is not me who is the LRA,” said Ongwen.